Welcome to the Mad in America podcast, a new weekly discussion that searches for the truth about psychiatric prescription drugs and mental health care worldwide.

This podcast is part of Mad in America’s mission to serve as a catalyst for rethinking psychiatric care. We believe that the current drug-based paradigm of care has failed our society and that scientific research, as well as the lived experience of those who have been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, calls for profound change.

On the podcast over the coming weeks, we will have interviews with experts and those with lived experience of the psychiatric system.

Thank you for joining us as we discuss the many issues around rethinking psychiatric care around the world.

Johann is one of our foremost
social science thinkers and writers. In addition to writing
regularly for the New York Times and Independent newspapers, he has
written extensively on social science and human rights issues. His
2015 book Chasing the Scream:
The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, challenges what we
believe about addiction and his TED talk on our response to
addiction has been viewed over 20 million times.

Johann was twice named ‘National
Newspaper Journalist of the Year’ by Amnesty International. And he
has been named ‘Cultural Commentator of the Year’ and
‘Environmental Commentator of the Year’ at the Comment
Awards.

How Johann became interested in
journalism and began writing about social justice and human rights
issues.

What led to wanting to write a
book that was partly based on his own experiences with depression
and anxiety, but also that provided the evidence for social and
cultural issues that may underlie the dramatic increase in the
number of people needing support for emotional
distress.

The facts behind the chemical
imbalance theory of mental illness.

The role of the
bio-psycho-social model of mental distress and why we may have
focussed predominantly on biological interventions.

Social prescribing as a means to
enable connection between people who struggle with depression and
anxiety.

The
Hamilton Depression scale and how it shows us that the effect
of antidepressant drugs is small when compared to the improvements
that can be achieved without drug therapy.

How Johann would like to widen
the definition of what may be considered an
‘antidepressant’.

How disempowerment often lies at
the heart of poor health.

How stigma relates to our
perceptions of an individual who is labelled mentally ill and how
it changes if we think someone has a biological
problem.

About the Podcast

Welcome to the Mad in America podcast, a new weekly discussion that searches for the truth about psychiatric prescription drugs and mental health care worldwide.
This podcast is part of Mad in America’s mission to serve as a catalyst for rethinking psychiatric care and mental health. We believe that the current drug-based paradigm of care has failed our society and that scientific research, as well as the lived experience of those who have been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, calls for profound change.
On the podcast over the coming weeks, we will have interviews with experts and those with lived experience of the psychiatric system. Thank you for joining us as we discuss the many issues around rethinking mental health around the world.
For more information visit madinamerica.com
To contact us email podcasts@madinamerica.com